How does an athlete compare to other students in the classroom?

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Student athletes are on the road for almost half their games during the season, and while it can be exciting to travel, their schoolwork is never far behind them. How do athletes complete assignments they may miss while traveling? Do they get extended deadlines? Are they allowed to skip the assignment?

The truth is it varies by each professor.

Roy Bannon is a retired computer science professor who taught for 15 years at Utica College in Utica, NY. He echoes that it varies by professor, but the athlete must complete the assignment.

“It varies,” he said. “I know professors who would give athletes a week, which to me seems way too long. I would always give them a day or two after the athletic event took place to get the assignment in. But it really does vary because if the assignment is online for example, the athlete may only be given a few hours extra to complete it.”

Bannon said he has never seen a professor that let the athlete skip the assignment entirely.

“I’ve never seen that take place,” he said. “You hear about schools like North Carolina who get caught with academic fraud and people think that all schools are like that, but that just isn’t the case. Student athletes get their work done, and they often have to work even harder to do it since they have a sport to focus on as well.”

In fall semester 2017, Wright State student athletes had a 3.25 combined GPA, while all other students at WSU had a 2.93. This supports the idea that WSU athletes do well in the classroom, and Bannon is not surprised by it at all.

“In my experience athletes seem to master one thing better than other students; structure. Maybe it’s the GPA requirements to play, maybe it’s the militaristic way in which some coaches expect their players to act off the field. All I know is athletes came to my class driven and goal oriented, and I’m sure it’s the same way at a division one school like Wright State.”